While working with 3D-printed glass on a project for the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2017, design engineer Nassia Inglessis realized something crucial was missing: the mark of the hand. So she came up with a solution, developing a glove with special sensors that allowed her to manually control the air entering the molten material. "I was still completely in contact with the glass," explains Inglessis, founder of Studio INI, based in London and Athens. She calls this concept augmented materiality-the technological enhancement of physical experiences, and human engagement, at every scale. For the 2018 London Design Biennale she erected Disobedience, a 56-foot kinetic sculpture that people could walk through. "It flexed open in response to your presence," notes Inglessis of the tunnel-like form, made up of recycled-plastic links. "It disobeys that idea that a wall is unresponsive." She applied a similar idea to Urban Imprint, recently on view at A/D/O by MINI in Brooklyn. Rigged on a pulley system, a canopy of digitally hewn concrete and rubber hunks undulates in concert with visitors' movements. "It amplifies their presence," says Inglessis, newly represented by PaceX. "It's a living structure."
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